Ruto Orders Removal Of Taxes On Cooking Gas To Reduce Prices

President William Ruto has ordered the Ministry of Treasury to remove all taxes imposed on Liquefied Petroleum (LPG) gas in a bid to reduce the price of cooking gas.

Speaking on Friday, February 24 during the launch of Taifa Gas in Dongo Kundu, Mombasa County, the Head of State revealed that the Kenya Kwanza government is working on a way to have the cost of cooking gas made affordable to Kenyans.

"Every household in Kenya will have a gas cylinder and we will make sure that the price of gas goes down because we will also do away with all taxes imposed on gas so that we can make sure that every household in the republic of Kenya has access to gas for cooking," he stated.

A cooking gas flame. /FILE

He believed that with affordable cooking gas, Kenyans will desist from using alternative cooking methods, including using wood fuel, which is harmful to the environment.

"We can eliminate the use of wood fuel, eliminate the challenges of health and also restore our environment by reducing the number of trees being cut for purposes of wood fuel," he added.

As a consequence, President Ruto gave Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Njuguna Ndung'u the marching orders to scrap all the taxes imposed on cooking gas.

"In three years, every household in Kenya has a subsidized cooking gas both in terms of the cost of the cylinder, we want to see whether we can give the cylinder for free or we can charge a minimal fee," he added.

The Head of State further tasked the Ministry with ensuring that all illegal filling of gas in the country is eliminated to spare Kenyans from the dangers of handling flammable gas products, firing a warning to conmen fond of using substandard gas cylinders for the refilling of gas.

Ruto also ordered top managers at the Kenya Pipeline Company Limited (KPC) to expand the local terminal storage capacity of LPG gas to make it available countrywide, a move which will provide reservoirs for cheaper LPG gas from Tanzania. 

The project that is aimed at lowering the cost of cooking gas in Kenya will see an increase in capacity from 30,000 tonnes to 45,000 tonnes of LPG gas.

"I have ordered these officials to ensure that we have enough local capacity to store and process this gas in order to save our mothers from dangerous biomass cooking," Ruto noted. 

"By 2025, we expect all our schools and other institutions to have put in place mechanisms that ensure a modern way of cooking by cooking gas," Ruto further directed. 

Taifa Gas is Tanzania’s largest LPG supply company in East Africa, with Kenya being one of its largest markets, yet the LPG was being transported by road. Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) data shows that Kenya imported 240,000 tons of LPG in 2022, up from 180,000 tons in 2021.

Taifa Gas is set to build a 30,000-tonne facility at the Special Economic Zone in Dongo Kundu, near the port of Mombasa. It was earlier estimated to cost $130 million (Ksh16.25 billion). Agol, which is nearby, is a 25,000-tonne facility.

Construction of the Taifa Gas facility offers Kenya an opportunity to lower cooking gas costs in the absence of price controls.

Dongo Kundu site in Mombasa. /FILE